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New Laptop

Waldo
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Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: New Laptop

Quote from: colintivy
Views please???

Perhaps resize the Windows partition(s) using Windows tools before installing Mint in the resulting free space (to ensure you don't come a cropper  with the gparted issue mentioned by ejs previously - I've no idea how common this problem is).
HairyMcbiker
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Registered: ‎16-02-2009

Re: New Laptop

I would also say that 50Gb is TOO much for /. I use 30Gb and even then only use ~10Gb of it, so unless you are planning on burning Blu-Ray disks drop the / to 20-30GB and increase you /home to the rest.
Using M$ tools on M$ partitions is always a good idea (most of the time  ;D). I would use the disk manager to reduce your C drive to the required size. then leave the rest UNALOCATED, and partition it up using the installer.
Mint 11 (and all previous versions) have gparted on the cd/dvd but don't  install it onto the HDD for some reason  Huh
ejs
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Re: New Laptop

You should also consider if you want all your documents to be accessible while in Windows - the easiest way to do that is to keep them on an ntfs partition, they you don't really need a huge /home partition.
HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

For cross compatibility just install dropbox on both and it will sync them, saves having a ntfs partition mounted.
VileReynard
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Re: New Laptop

If you use dropbox, don't put anything secret/valuable etc there.
Dropbox retain the key and can/will access your data, especially if the USA asks them to.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

Same with any "secure" thing. If they want to access it you have to GIVE them the key. My main issue with long password strings is that I forget them  Embarrassed I have a gpg'ed file from way back that I cant even access any more  Cry
So I gave up trying to protect files. 99%+ of my documents are of no interest to anybody else, and none of them contain any passwords etc.
For the same reasons I use gmail/dropbox/etc. My files are mine, but if the FBI/CIA etc wants to view them go ahead  Grin
I thought the main reason for partitioning this was that he wasn't going to be using the m$ part anyway  Huh All this talk about sharing is not necessary unless he wants/needs to share them.
VileReynard
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Re: New Laptop

They ask you for a security key to "protect" your files.
Unless you were to double up on security keys, dropbox already have the key to your data...

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

ejs
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Re: New Laptop

There's a difference between not bothering to protect your files vs. sending all your files to other people for them to keep hold of.
HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

Maybe but with the "world" going "cloud" daft, it is getting harder to get FREE space that doesn't have some caveat.
If you PAY for it then it is a different matter, but when they are offering "sumit for nowt" then there is usually a catch. (Tanstaafl applies.)
There is one that encrypts your uploads and YOU hold the key not them, but I can't remember who it is (SpiderOak?)
colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

Thanks for all that, I do not intend to use Win 7 for anything other than dealing with things that Linux cannot do. So all this seurity was not really my worry.
Regarding Win 7 tools, I had a quick look at disk manager, which indeed shows the partition details, but I do not see any option to play about with them. Clearly the HD is full,  with no unallocated space and it wil be neccessary shrink C down to get Mint 11 in, it is currently only 10% full of its 440GB capacity. The  layout has 3 other partitions eg: HP Tools 99MB FAT 32, Recovery 20GB NFTS, System 199MB NFTS appearing separately.
I am sure that you will have some comment about this, I had intended to use gparted from the Mint 11 installation disk but this was only used for a clean Ubuntu upgrade some time ago.
When I get to inserting the Mint partitions I can cut the / down a bit, I have 4GB of RAM so swap can easily come up to that figure. I will leave some elbow room after /home for later use if required.
   Huh
HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

The gparted form the Mint 11 disk will work fine.
Instead of clicking on the install button on the desktop, open the Menu/Admin/gparted and resize the disk before you run the installer.
You just need to shrink the 440Gb to what ever you want 200Gb/250?
Then leave the rest of the space empty.
Then when you run the install you will have to chose the "Something else" option on install to partition the disk as you want, an extended partition with the /,/home& swap in it since there is already several primary partitions on the disk (you can only have 4)
colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

Hi HB,  That was quick (as usual).
I have had a deeper look at Win 7 Disc Management and indeed found an option to "shrink" partitions, but two hurdles exist. 1. You need to be an Administrator, which I have not found a way to do this.  2. More seriously, it seems that you cannot shrink a partition that uses NFTS format (which C does) for some reason.. This would be a stopper if it is really true. It also suggests that if you do shrink a partition, the space will be to the right of that partition, my C is number 1 of 4. I would not like Mint to be in there!
You are quite right that the four primary partitions are already taken up with Win 7 so the new one will have to be an extended one. The figures given for max available size is about 240GB which should be plenty.
In view of all this I am sure that your advice to use the gparted with the instal disc, which I did expect to use before reading some of the posts above.
Wink Wink
HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

It doesn't really matter what order your partitions are in (usually)
When you shrink it (the M$ one) it will create space AFTER it.
Then you just create a new extended partition in the free space and you can (if you want) create your Linux partitions then, with a 30Gb formatted as ext4, a 4Gb swap and the rest as the home as ext4) then when you install just select the appropriate partitions and choose ext4 and no format (as you have just created them). Or do this as part of the install (I tend to do it before but YMMV)

You could move the other partitions down but why bother?
HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

E.g. here is my sda.
The order is a but strange but it works  Cheesy
sda3 is my Mint 11
sda1 is my Mint LMDE
the rest are labelled as you can see. I use the same /home partition and use different usernames to keep my LMDE & Mint 11 seperate.
ejs
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Re: New Laptop

If you already have 4 primary partitions, don't you have to move at least one of them onto the extended partition?
Moving the other partitions down might help in that it keeps the partitions in the same order as they were before.
The gparted bug with moving and resizing ntfs partitions and then Windows not booting was fixed some time ago.